Charged in Vegas, violent past here

Natasha Galenn Jackson, 35, who will be arraigned in a Las Vegas court Monday on eight felony indictments in connection with a crime spree there July 29, was known as Natasha Hamer in Manchester.

Jackson faces Las Vegas charges that include murder, attempted murder, burglary, kidnapping and robbery in connection with incidents that left one victim dead and another not expected to survive.

.Police shot and killed Jackson’s partner, 27-year-old Cody Davis Winters, after he attempted escape by using a wounded victim as a hostage. The partners had earlier tried to trick police by pretending Jackson was a hostage that he had released, but police arrested her as she tried to run away...Hamer may have begun her life of crime at age 17 in Manchester.

Then known as Natasha Hamer, and living on Calef Road, she was found guilty April 4, 1997, of a simple assault that occurred Sept. 23, 1996, given a deferred nine-month sentence and barred from contact with a “Jennifer T.”..She didn’t appear for the deferred sentence hearing a year later, so a warrant was issued for her arrest. She finally appeared on July 5, 2000, and the sentence was suspended.

Hamer had apparently had enough of New Hampshire for the time being, because her next convictions were for misdemeanor battery in 2005 and 2006 in Las Vegas...When she was next in a Manchester court, in 2009, her address was listed as San Diego, Calif. She was charged with driving while intoxicated, excess alcohol concentration, and operating after suspension Dec. 6, 2009...She pled guilty Feb. 17, 2010, to the DWI charge and was fined $620, had her license revoked for 18 months and was required to attend an alcohol program.

Hamer next appeared in the Manchester court system on five criminal mischief charges, accused of slashing tires in the area of Pine and High streets, and disorderly conduct, for refusing at first to drop the knife and of repeatedly shouting obscenities Sept. 11, 2011. By then, her address was 452 Pine St. Hamer was released on $1,000 cash/surety bail, scheduled for trial Dec. 5, 2011...But she didn’t stay out of trouble long.

She was arrested on a first-degree assault charge, accused of hitting her sleeping boyfriend, Ryan DeFabio, 23, in the head with a claw hammer Nov. 2.

DeFabio told police they had argued in his apartment at 370 Amherst St., but they had made up and he had fallen asleep on the couch. He said Hamer took his license, ATM card and $220 after assaulting him. Those items, with the cash totaling just $206, were placed in evidence after Hamer’s arrest...When she was arraigned on the felony charge Nov. 3, prosecutors filed a motion to revoke her bail on the mischief and disorderly conduct charges and have her held until her December trial. In court that day, Hamer said: “I suggest strongly that (bail) be revoked ... I’m a danger.”..By the next day, her public defender, Demetrio Aspiras, had worked out a negotiated plea on the earlier charges. She pleaded no contest to one criminal mischief and to disorderly conduct and the remaining charges were dropped. She was sentenced to 12 months in the House of Corrections, six months of that suspended and credit for 22 days of pretrial detention. She was to be on good behavior for two years and pay restitution through the Department of Corrections...Hamer was in the Valley Street Jail serving that sentence when her attorney filed a motion with the Hillsborough County North Superior Court Feb 3, 2012, seeking to have the felony charge dismissed.

Aspiras noted the county had failed to request an extension before expiration of the 90-day limit for obtaining an indictment that was set in a May 7, 2004, memo issued by then Superior Court Chief Justice Robert Lynn...Judge Kenneth Brown dismissed the charge Feb. 28, but without prejudice, which meant the county attorney could still seek an indictment. But the victim, DeFabio, died a few days later, on March 3. His death was unrelated to the hammer assault...Hamer wasted little time in filing a handwritten motion with the Superior Court, seeking to retrieve “my property which consists of $206.” She said police took it as evidence after a domestic dispute. Hamer also said she was not indicted on any charges “due to lack of physical evidence,” and the charges were dropped...Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Michael Valentine filed an objection, saying the evidence was still stolen property and Hamer had no right to it. He also said that despite DeFabio’s death, “there is substantial corroborating evidence to support that the defendant committed crimes against R.D. and the statute of limitations on those actions has not yet run.”..Hamer didn’t get the money, but she had apparently already moved on, because the court’s letter denying her request was returned, marked no forwarding address.